SCOTLAND 



from universities. The Assembly sits annually at Edinburgh, in May, 10 days. The pastors 

 are all entitled to a house and glebe land, equal to .€40 a year, and to receive from parish 

 tithes or the exchequer, f 150 a year ; some liave much more, or nearly £ 1,000, though 

 the average income is £300. In populous parishes there are chapels of ease, where the min- 

 isters are elected by the heads of families, and paid chiefly by the rent of seats. There are 

 38 missionaries in remote parts of the Highlands, supported by the crown, and the Society 

 for propagating Christianity has a few. There is, besides, a large and respectable body of 

 Dissenters, chiefly Catholics and Episcopalians. 



The Scotch are a very pious, as well as moral people ; there are few children of 10 years 

 who have not by heart the Assembly's Catechism ; and there is generally family worship 

 twice a day. On Sundays, the roads are thronged with people in their best dresses, going to 

 church ; and at church, they are remarkable for their close attention to the services. When 

 George the Fourth visited Edinburgh, he went to church on Sunday. He is said to have re- 

 marked with astonishment as he went through the streets, that the people did not follow him, 

 but that each individual went straight to his accustomed place of worship. The monarch is 

 said to have expressed great respect for conduct which seemed to display such steadfastness 

 of principle, while at the same time their loyalty was unquestionable. 



20. Funerals. These generally are conducted somewhat as in New England ; though in 

 the highlands the dead are sometimes buried after the Gaelic manner, with feasting and festivity, 

 with the coronach or funeral dirge, and with the shrieking of women, as in some eastern coun- 

 tries. The funeral festivity, which is carried to great excess, is called the Lyke-ivake. In 

 Edinburgh, and in most of the towns, there are great processions at funerals, and all the rela- 

 tives of the deceased, including the most remote, are expected to attend. It is said, that every 

 man keeps a black coat ready for such occasions. 



21. J]Iarriages. These are usually performed by the clergy as in our country, but a justice 

 of the peace is allowed to perform the ceremony ; even a declaration of the parties before a 

 competent witness is sufficient to answer ihe law. The blacksmith at Gretna Green was resorted 

 to by the English fugitives, as such a witness, only because he happened to be upon the border, 

 at a point easily accessible. 



22. Superstitions. The Scotch had formerly, and even recently, many superstitions, that 

 were so deeply rooted as to have an influence in common afl^airs. These are fast disappearing, 

 though many of them are of a highly poetical character. The Highlanders, in a particular 

 manner, were liable to this influence, l)Oth from their Ignorance, and the solitudes in which 

 they lived. They dwell among the wild and grand scenes of nature, among lakes, mountains, 

 and waterfalls. Many of the natural phenomena of these were referred to supernatural causes, 

 and the glens and mountains were peopled, in the Highlander's fancy, with imaginary beings, 

 who were not always supposed to be benevolent. 



The principal of these were the fairies, who were supposed to exchange children with the 

 people, and to take away some, of great purity of mind, to fairy land. They were called, 

 when spoken of, "the good people," from a wish to conciliate them. There was, and there 

 is now much belief among the rustics in omens and other indications of futurity, and many a 

 lass goes forth at Halloween with certain ceremonies, to look for the image of her future hus- 

 band. There were several kinds of divination, the most solemn of which was this. A man 

 slept at night near a waterfall, wrapped in the fresh hide of a bull, and in the morning his an 

 swers were taken for responses. The " second sight " was the faculty bestowed on a few of 

 seeing the representation of a future event ; as a death, a funeral, a massacre, or a mere casua* 

 visiter passing before their eyes. It would come upon the seer unawares, as 



" Coming events cast their shadows before." 



23. Government. Scotland, notwithstanding the accession of James the Sixth to the throne 

 of England, was nevertheless a separate kingdom for above a century afterwards. In 1707, a 

 union was effected between the two kingdoms, under the name of Great Britain. The United 

 Kingdom is represented by one parliament ; and It is settled by the articles of union, that when 

 Britain raises by a land tax £2,000,000, Scotland shall raise £48,000. The laws relating to 

 trade, customs, and the excise, are the same in bolh countries ; but all the other laws of Scot 

 land remain In force, though alterable by the parliament of Great Britain, yet with this caution : 

 that laws relating to public policy are alterable at the discretion of the pailiament : but laws 



